Rand Paul offers his 'libertarian twist' on conservatism

By SHAWNE K. WICKHAM New Hampshire Sunday News

MANCHESTER U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), one of several potential 2016 Republican presidential candidates in town for today's "Freedom Summit" in Manchester, says he would not vote for the Paul Ryan budget plan that passed the House earlier this week.

In an interview with the New Hampshire Union Leader on Friday, Paul also repeated his frequent observation that "the same old cookie-cutter, Chamber of Commerce Republican may not be what we need to win anymore."

And that, he said, "actually encourages people like myself who say, you know what, maybe conservatives need a little bit of a libertarian twist or maybe the Republican party needs a little bit of a libertarian twist to help them have access to new constituencies."

The junior senator from Kentucky sidestepped a question about how his political views differ from those of his father, Ron Paul, the former Presidential candidate who frequently chastised his Republican opponents and became a counter-cultural hero to the college generation.

But Paul said he understands his father's appeal with younger voters.

"I think young people see through hypocrisy," he said. "My dad exemplified and portrayed genuineness almost to a fault."

"He didn't beat around the bush and he told you, whether it was politic or not, ... what he thought."

The younger Paul did a bit of that himself when he discussed the budget plan by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., that narrowly passed the House on Thursday. Twelve Republicans and all the Democrats voted against it.

Paul said the Ryan plan includes "a little bit of fudging on the numbers" to get to a balanced budget in 10 years.

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Rand Paul offers his 'libertarian twist' on conservatism